Abstract

Background

The existence of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in patients with lung cancer has been
reported. The purpose of this study was to assess whether CTCs are predictive of the
pathological effects of induction chemoradiotherapy for patients with non-small cell
lung cancer.

Methods

Patients who underwent induction chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery were compared
with those who underwent surgery alone. Peripheral and pulmonary venous blood samples
from the involved lobe were collected intraoperatively, and the number of CTCs was
counted using the CellSearch™ system, an epithelial cell adhesion molecule-based immunomagnetic
technique.